Game Review: Shadowrun Dragonfall

In 2013, a little company called Harebrained Schemes released a game called Shadowrun Returns. The game was great, and it received a DLC update called Dragonfall which was bigger than the original game itself — in fact, it probably should have been the main release, and Shadowrun Returns (or rather the initial campaign ‘Dead Man’s Switch’) should have been the DLC. Hoping for a chance to put Dragonfall out in front, Harebrained Schemes released Dragonfall: Director’s Cut, an updated standalone version of the critically acclaimed DLC campaign. It quickly became one of my all time favorite RPGs. Let’s take a look at some of the things that stand out about Dragonfall: Director’s Cut.

1) The game is great, if you’re an RPG fan.

Dead Man’s Switch, the original release, was alright, but the DLC campaign Dragonfall was an improvement in every possible way — story, length, gameplay. It’s a strategy RPG ala XCOM, Final Fantasy Tactics, or the original Fallout games, and when it came out, it was the best one to have been released in years. While Harebrained Schemes might not have raked in the big bucks, because they don’t have the advertising budget EA might have, those big publishers should be kicking themselves over having nothing to do with the game many RPG fans are going to remember as the best game of 2013-2014.